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your thoughts on PM 1.8 + ibook vs 17"PB

S

sbb155

macrumors 6502
Original poster
The costs are VERY similar
I need a portable AND desktop solution

So, I thought about 17" PB g4 naturally...

THEN it struck me...

12" ibook combo drive AND 1.8 PM or 1.8 iMAC

it comes to nearly the same price! (~2400 with edu discount)

GRANTED the TWO computers will cost me an extra $150 in RAM to upgrade both to 512MB....

Please please please tell me upside and downside of these approaches.
For portability I need to ibook for email and keynote/PP presentations (which have some short video clips in the presentations). That's it.
I also need video editing for the "desktop" aspect.
I figured the 17 PB was perfect.... but getting 2 computers really seems a better deal??? I get a g5 out of it....
 
Ouch, that's a toughie!

I think part of the question, which you may or may not have considered, comes down to size; if you want portability, is the 17in Powerbook portable enough for you? It's a beast as far as laptops go - albeit a beautiful one.

The 12in on the other hand will be much more portable, although you're obviously gonna lose out on features when you're on the road. Tbh, it seems like you aren't gonna need to make heavy use of your laptop while you're on the road, and if video editing while at your desk is a priority, maybe the G5 is worth a look!

Either way, I'd wait to see an update; that 1.8sp will be moving to a 2GHz sp, I reckon.

Cheers,

andy.
 
I'd go with the G5 + iBook. You don't need much in the laptop, so the iBook would suit you perfectly, not to mention it'll be a hell of a lot easier to lug it around than a 17" PB. Plus, if you're doing video editing at home, the G5 will work a lot faster than the PB. Seems to be the best of both worlds, faster desktop and smaller laptop.
 
sbb155 said:
The costs are VERY similar
I need a portable AND desktop solution

So, I thought about 17" PB g4 naturally...

THEN it struck me...

12" ibook combo drive AND 1.8 PM or 1.8 iMAC

it comes to nearly the same price! (~2400 with edu discount)

GRANTED the TWO computers will cost me an extra $150 in RAM to upgrade both to 512MB....

Please please please tell me upside and downside of these approaches.
For portability I need to ibook for email and keynote/PP presentations (which have some short video clips in the presentations). That's it.
I also need video editing for the "desktop" aspect.
I figured the 17 PB was perfect.... but getting 2 computers really seems a better deal??? I get a g5 out of it....
Click to expand...

i bought my 15" pb last may before the imac g5 came out and the 12" ibook was revised. now i would buy a 20"imac g5 and a 12"ibook. you get a lot more computer usability. i would probably bite the bullet and shell out 500 bucks more and get the 12" pb plus the 20" imac.
i bought the pb for portability and as desktop replacement. so i compromised on both. now i would get the best of both. 😀

i'll go for the 20"imac next revision. but i can't make up for the better mobility of the 12"pb over my 15" pb.

andi
 
is the ibookm a lot slower than the pB? (for keynote with embedded video in the presentation)

It seems like the consensus is 2 computers not the 17 inch PB
 
sbb155 said:
is the ibookm a lot slower than the pB? (for keynote with embedded video in the presentation)

It seems like the consensus is 2 computers not the 17 inch PB
Click to expand...


Why I am not surprised when people say oh does an iBook or Mac mini or even an eMac handle PS, Keynote, Word, Mail, Surfing, etc....


Get a grip people it will handle it fine, last time I checked if you are working on a 20x30 foot poster in PS then you would buy a PMG5.

If the computer was not capable now, what made it capable yesterday when the same chip was in the PB or PM for that matter. Nothing has changed i didn't realize that iLife and iWork needed a G5 to be usable. 🙄

Are you working on your next hollywood blockbuster that you need a SUPER DUPER Laptop, yet on a budget. <-- Something does not fit there, if you catch my drift. 😉 🙂
 
sbb155 said:
The costs are VERY similar
I need a portable AND desktop solution

So, I thought about 17" PB g4 naturally...

THEN it struck me...

12" ibook combo drive AND 1.8 PM or 1.8 iMAC

it comes to nearly the same price! (~2400 with edu discount)

GRANTED the TWO computers will cost me an extra $150 in RAM to upgrade both to 512MB....

Please please please tell me upside and downside of these approaches.
For portability I need to ibook for email and keynote/PP presentations (which have some short video clips in the presentations). That's it.
I also need video editing for the "desktop" aspect.
I figured the 17 PB was perfect.... but getting 2 computers really seems a better deal??? I get a g5 out of it....
Click to expand...


It all depends on what you need to do.

What /I/ would do (and will do once I persuade my wife that life has no meaning without a Mac) is get the 15"PB, a keyboard, mouse and external monitor, use the PB connected up as a desktop, then just unplug it when I need to go on the road, like I do with my Thinkpad now.

But then I use my laptop for Java/Web services development, email, word processing and web surfing (and occasional Civ3 or SimCity4) so I don't need the power that someone doing video processing would need.
 
so keynote won't run well on an ibook? Is that what you are saying? If keynote with quicktime videos won't run well (?choppy) then I would have to go for a faster pb. I thought the consensus was that it could run well. I guess that i book isn't a very good presentation machine.
 
I believe our friend maya is saying it *will* run OK on an iBook.

Let's face it, the iBook is almost the same as the Powerbook of a year ago, and if that was getting people week at the kness due to its speed then, why would the iBook be a three-legged dog now?

For me it would be no contest: Get the desktop and the iBook.

As to which desktop, I'll leave that to more experienced desktop users. I've only ever used my current G3 600 iBook (yeah, I know).

🙂
 
id go for the two computers. you will be much happier with the portability of the iBook and much happier with the power or the PM. so why compromise and get less of each of those in the 17" PB?
 
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